Zahid Must Apologize to All Malaysians

Our newly minted Home Minister, Zahid Hamidi, was reported to have written in an Utusan Malaysia column that those who disagree with the electoral system should migrate elsewhere. Then in Twitter world, the newly minted Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaludin, said that it was Zahid’s personal comment. Today, The Star reported (read here) that Zahid defended his piece and said that he is not racist and was misunderstood. He merely stated the practical steps for people who wants a different electoral system to go where it is practiced.

Only in Malaysia do our leaders tell the people they are leading to leave if they are not happy with something in the country. There are bound to be numerous things that Malaysians will never be happy with about Malaysia but that is no reason to suggest to them to pack and leave. Such mentality is unbecoming of a Minister, especially the Home Minister, whose job is to ensure peace and stability at our home front. He must apologize to all Malaysians. He cannot defend the indefensible. No Malaysian can tell another Malaysian to leave the country. Zahid does not own the country.

True, Zahid did not make a racial statement. He made an unacceptable statement. He defended his statement instead of apologizing to Malaysians. He forgot that almost 53% of Malaysian voters did not vote BN. That, by the way, represents the majority of Malaysians. Is he telling them to get lost?

Such a joker, if does not realize it to repent, should be fired by the PM, his immediate boss. The real boss, the people, will have to tolerate this for the next 5 years. However, his immediate boss has remained absolutely quiet about Zahid’s behavior which is quite telling. PM Najib is scared of tackling such insolent behavior head on and afraid to offend Zahid’s supporters in Umno because at the end of this year, there will be the AGM to decide on the fate of Najib’s Presidential position.

We seem to have a very poor start to the new Cabinet overshadowed by Zahid’s inexcusable statement. Incidentally, his Ministry has gone to arrest Adam Adli, the Student Activist, under the Sedition Act when more seditious statements by Utusan and pro-Umno bloggers have not been arrested for sedition. Such is the style of rule by BN, selective prosecution.

No wonder the majority of Malaysians and especially those who are more knowledgeable of such bias behavior of the Govt have voted Pakatan Rakyat instead. They choose to have a fair and just Govt which PR is promising as opposed to what they now can see again and again which is neither fair nor just.

To PM Najib and the new Cabinet, there is no time for celebration but time for action to clean up the shop and behave fair and just as the Malaysians want. They are your final bosses and they will speak again louder the next time GE14 comes around. So, time to buck up. Your people are closely watching you.